Carefree Truth

Issue #352, November 3, 2014

 

 

 

For those of you who have not yet voted, I would like to reiterate and expand upon the bullet points I sent out earlier, and handed out at the Carefree Post Office in October.   A plethora of negative and frequently inaccurate assertions have been suggested to the public by those opposing Propositions 488 & 489.  Below are the facts. 

 

 

 

Doug Stavoe and Jim Van Allen formed the PAC opposing 4 year staggered terms (488) and a matching 4 year mayoral term (489).    Mr. Stavoe was the losing candidate in a mayoral election.  Mr. Van Allen was elected to the Council during a run-off election in which he was the sole candidate, and resigned from the Council before his term ended. 

 

 

 

1. Council members are unpaid citizen volunteers performing community service, not "career politicians". 

 

 

Carefree has been blessed to have had many dedicated and exceptional men and woman who were willing to donate their time and real world experience to serve our Town.  No pay checks or benefits of any sort come with the "job". 

 

 

 

2. Out of 91, the only 5 municipalities in Arizona that do not utilize 4 year staggered terms are Carefree, Cave Creek, Jerome, Tombstone, and Hayden.  4 year staggered terms are the community gold standard because they work.

 

 

Staggered terms are also the standard for most business boards, non profit boards, and even HOA boards.  Consistency does matter. 

 

 

 

3. Currently, the potential exists for the entire legislative body to be replaced, creating a vast void of experience and knowledge. 

 

 

The opponents contend that at most, there have been 3 new Council members.  This is incorrect.  The 2011 Council consisted of 5 new members, retaining only 2 experienced Councilmen.  Each of them will tell you that it was a struggle, although all were intelligent and diligent people, there because they were dedicated to the Town of Carefree.  At that juncture, a new member was dinged for an "inadvertent Open Meeting Law violation" due to ignorance of the Byzantine state laws that those familiar with Carefree's issues do not know.

 

 

 

4. Propositions 488 & 489 were citizen driven, not initiated by any members of the Carefree Council. 

 

 

The opponents of Props 488 & 489 have accused Michael Krahe, who headed the Initiative drive to get the Props on the ballot, of being a political flunky.  Mr. Krahe is a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission, a body they referred to as being political appointees who owed their "jobs" to the Council.  I am also on P&Z.  Like the Council members, we are unpaid citizen volunteers doing a community service.  No pay checks.  No benefits.  By Arizona state law, P&Z Commissioners must be appointed by the co-responding municipal Councils.

 

 

 

5. Term limits would not be eliminated by the passage of Props 488 & 489. 

 

 

If these Props pass, an inconsistency between the laws would go before a judge to be resolved. Unlike what the opponents would have you believe, the Council can not simply make a Resolution to eliminate term limits.  The probable fix would be a change from 2 to 4 year terms in the term limit law but, by law, that would be decided at the judicial level.

 

 

 

6. The previous single attempt to institute 4 year staggered terms was sabotaged by the notoriously anti-Carefree paper, the Sonoran News.  

 

 

Those opposing the Props have repeatedly told voters that 4 years staggered terms have been voted down multiple times.  It was voted down once, years ago, and that was largely due to constant negative editorials in the Sonoran News, the only source of "news" at the time.

 

 

 

7. Those opposing Props 488 & 489 are the same consistently negative people who favored the failed recall attempt against our Mayor that was backed by the Sonoran News. 

 

 

The opponents, a handful of vocal cohorts, are solely featured in Sonoran News editorials concerning Carefree.

 

 

 

Lyn Hitchon

 

 

 

Prepared by Carefree Truth

Please vote Yes for Props 488 & 489

Carefree Truth PAC # C152014

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